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In contemporary society, the fight against human trafficking has become a significant global issue. Human trafficking is considered a highly latent crime, often perpetrated by organized transnational criminal groups (organizations). Consequently, law enforcement agencies face certain challenges in detecting, investigating, and preventing these crimes. Addressing these issues can be facilitated by the competent use of criminalistic characteristics by law enforcement personnel. The aim of this study is to analyze the practice of investigating criminal cases of human trafficking and to examine the element of the criminalistic characteristics of human trafficking, specifically the data on the individual who committed the crime. Methodological Basis: To achieve this goal, the author employed the dialectical method, as well as a range of general scientific and special methods of scientific cognition (analysis, comparison, analogy, systemic method, etc.). Results: Based on the analysis of empirical material (statistics from the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation over the past five years, as well as the practice of investigating criminal cases in the Russian Federation under Article 127.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the author attempts to construct a descriptive model of the individual committing human trafficking. Conclusions: In the Russian Federation, the detection, solvability, and prosecution of human trafficking crimes committed by organized criminal groups remain at a relatively low level. It appears that improving the specific methodology for investigating human trafficking, particularly by constructing a criminalistic model of the individual committing the crime as stipulated in Article 127.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, may help address this problem.

Recently, the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation has been supplemented with provisions that establish liability for preparation for another crime and forms of complicity in committing another crime. In doctrine, such provisions are referred to as criminal law norms with dual prevention, as they are designed to prevent other, typically more serious, offenses. In 2022, the heightened threat of sabotage within Russia led to the introduction of Article 281.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which establishes criminal liability for aiding and abetting sabotage activities, analogous to Article 205.1 of the Criminal Code. Using formal-legal methods, comparative analysis, and the analysis of qualitative (court rulings) and quantitative (statistics) data, the article identifies the technical-legal shortcomings of this new provision, which may complicate qualification and hinder the effective prevention of sabotage. Specifically, it highlights the “overload” of part 1 of Article 281.1 of the Criminal Code with alternative actions and the redundancy of special criminalization of aiding in the commission of sabotage. Based on the analysis of the provision stipulated in Article 281.1 of the Criminal Code, a new version is proposed, which includes the separation of preparatory and auxiliary actions into different parts of the article, as well as a new definition of financing sabotage activities.

The article explores contemporary issues and questions related to the application of forensic environmental expertise within the framework of preliminary investigations, and evaluates its role in law enforcement activities. The research formulated and proposed the main tasks of forensic environmental expertise at the current stage, highlighted its features, and identified problems associated with the imperfection of the current methodological support for this type of forensic examination. Based on the analysis of empirical material and law enforcement practice data, the problem of insufficient awareness among investigators and inquiry officers regarding the current prospects for using specialized knowledge in investigating environmental crimes was identified. To address the identified problems and optimize the entire process of investigating this group of criminal cases, measures were proposed for the implementation of technologies based on the use of Big Data in the activities of law enforcement officers and expert institutions.

The article examines the main theoretical approaches of legal scholars related to the essence and understanding of general legal principles, and analyzes the distinctive aspects of general legal principles compared to others. The relevance of the article is due to its contentious nature regarding the content and essence of general legal principles among different authors. The novelty of the article lies in the analysis of contemporary general legal principles, and the identification of the relationship between legal principles and doctrinal principles. The aim is to define general legal principles, explore the place and role of general legal obligations in the system of legal principles, and determine their characteristics within the system of legal principles.

Using the method of content analysis, this article examines publications from popular Russian newspapers “Novoe Vremya,” “Russkie Vedomosti,” “Svet,” “Nedelya,” and “Russkoe Slovo” dedicated to the activities of the Commission for the Revision of the Statute on Civil Service of 1895. By utilizing data from unpublished documents of the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA), the author aims to answer questions regarding public opinion towards civil ranks, the reform of the civil rank system, and how this issue was reflected in periodicals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The results of the content analysis complement previously conducted research and reveal additional details about the impact of civil service reform on various aspects of public life during the studied period.

The activities of Russian and Crimean state and public figure N. A. Sultan-Krym-Girei in the development of the Sokols’ sports and gymnastics movement in Russia at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries have been studied. It was established that N. A. Sultan-Krym-Girei’s development as a specialist in gymnastics took place during his education and military service in the Lithuanian Life Guards Regiment, where he served as the head of the gymnastics team. In his civil service in the Taurida Governorate, Nikolai Alexandrovich was a trustee of Feodosia gymnasiums and actively participated in improving education, strengthening the health, and physical fitness of students in Crimean educational institutions. He was one of the first initiators of introducing hygiene education in Russian schools. During his Caucasian period, N. A. Sultan-Krym-Girei was directly involved in the creation and leadership of the first Sokols’ gymnastics society in the Russian Empire. As a senator, he played an active role in the creation and activities of the Sokols’ gymnastics societies in St. Petersburg and the unified governing body of the Sokols’ movement in Russia, the “Union of Russian Sokols,” and led them. He facilitated the Union of Russian Sokols’ affiliation with the “Union of Slavic Sokols.” Through his many years of work in developing the sports and gymnastics movement, N. A. Sultan-Krym-Girei made a significant contribution to the emergence, formation, and spread of Sokols’ gymnastics in Russia, not only as a means of physical and moral education but also as a social movement aimed at consolidating the entire Russian society.

The article examines the views of early 20th-century Russian conservatives (Black Hundreds and nationalists) on the causes of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, their attitudes towards the development of the revolutionary situation, and the judgments of the Russian right-wing about the consequences of the power shift in the Ottoman Empire. These questions have not previously been the subject of independent research in the scientific literature. Based on materials from right-wing periodicals (newspapers “Zemshchina,” “Russkoe Znamya,” “Moskovskie Vedomosti,” “Kolokol,” “Kievlyanin,” “Novoe Vremya”) and journalistic works by conservative authors, three significant aspects through which the opinion of the Russian right on the Young Turk Revolution was formed are identified: the ideological positions of conservatives rejecting revolutionary social changes; Turkey’s place in the system of international relations and the forecasting of geopolitical changes in light of the Young Turks’ rise to power; and the perception of revolutionary events in Turkey as a negative example of potential further developments in Russia’s domestic political situation. The range of issues related to the Turkish revolution raised by conservatives allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the foreign policy views of the early 20th-century Russian right-wing.

The article examines the intangible factors of U.S. influence in Latin American and Caribbean countries and the U.S. ability to utilize them in the context of the entertainment industry at the present stage. The aim of the study is to determine the role and assess these factors, considered through examples of cinema, streaming service content, and the video game industry. The author adopted a constructivist approach and employed the method of statistical data analysis from open sources. A comparative method was used to identify common trends in the examined sectors of the entertainment industry in the context of the U.S. intangible influence and to provide a forecast regarding the extent of this influence in the medium term. The use of intangible tools of influence in the studied area represents an attempt by the U.S. to maintain and strengthen its position as a regional leader in the era of global great power competition. The author concludes that the cultural influence of the U.S. in these sectors of the entertainment industry is predominant compared to the capabilities of other countries in the region, and the available resources allow for the shaping of new norms for the youth of Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Eurasianism is among the traditional and most significant intellectual-political currents for Russia and its geostrategy. The importance of the postulates and approaches cultivated within Eurasianism has notably increased in the context of the sharply manifested conflict in the “Russia-West“ system in recent years and the corresponding reorientation of the Russian Federation’s geoeconomic priorities towards the countries of the “Global Majority.“ The actualization of Eurasianism and its broad entrenchment in Russian academic discourse is combined with its contemporary conceptual “fuzziness,“ variability of interpretations, and the presence of deep contradictions and problematic areas inherent to Eurasian ideological concepts, which the author conceptualizes as “dichotomies of Eurasianism.“ The article emphasizes the essential duality of Eurasianism, combining elements of verifiable scientific knowledge with ideological principles, allowing it to be considered a unique form of geo-ideology. It identifies substantive differences between the positions of classical Eurasianism (works of N. S. Trubetskoy, P. N. Savitsky, G. V. Vernadsky, etc.) and the prevailing directions of Eurasianism in the 21st century (“neo-Eurasianism,“ concepts of “Greater Eurasia,“ “Northern Eurasia“). The simultaneous presence of universalism (on an all-Russian and continental scale) and pronounced “Russia-centricity,“ as well as the combination of geoeconomic and geocultural isolationism with a strong integrative message across nations and countries, inherent in Eurasianism, are demonstrated. The necessity for the further development of Eurasianism, including within the framework of social geography issues, is substantiated.

The ethnopolitical movement of the Sámi in the Arctic region is examined through significant events in its development, including during Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. The author attempts to assess the current stage of the movement’s development and justify factors of its stagnation, proposing potential positive change scenarios based on the analysis of leading scholarly works in ethnopolitics and international relations, as well as open official internet resources of international organizations and periodical news publications. As a result, the author suggests considering five main stages in the development of the Sámi ethnopolitical movement against the backdrop of gradual formation of close international cooperation and cross-­border interaction among the countries where this indigenous Arctic people reside. It is identified that the collective West’s sanction policy against Russia negatively impacts the national consciousness of the Sámi people and the status of unity, which is unequivocally ignored by their own political leaders, leading the ethnopolitical movement to acute stagnation. This crisis is proposed to be seen as an opportunity to rethink the long historical journey of the Sámi towards relative political autonomy within the framework of pan-­Sámi policy.’